A lawsuit asking the Kennebec County Superior Court to order the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting for the June 2018 primaries has been filed by a group of eight candidates and the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting. The candidates named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are congressional candidate Lucas St. Clair, gubernatorial candidates Jim Boyle, Mark Dion, Mark Eves, Sean Faircloth, Diane Russell and Betsy Sweet, and state senate candidate Ben Chipman.
“Actions and statements from state officials have created uncertainty about implementation of Ranked Choice Voting,” said former State Senator Dick Woodbury, chair of the Committee. “We are asking the court to establish some clarity.”
Maine’s Ranked Choice Voting law took effect in January 2017 after being adopted by a majority of voters at the polls in November 2016. The Legislature, in October 2017, attempted to overrule the voters by adopting legislation that would delay use of Ranked Choice Voting until 2021, but more than 80,000 Maine voters responded with a People’s Veto initiative to get Ranked Choice Voting back on the books and at the polls for the June 2018 primaries. The Committee for Ranked Choice Voting spearheaded the referendum effort.
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